Edinburgh Evening News 17/12

The East Lothian banner will appear in the last four stage of the gents Scottish Triples Championship at Lanarkshire IBC on the weekend of Saturday March 28 as the reward for four super performances from the trio of Mark Johnston, Billy Mellors, and Derek Oliver in the playdown action at Perth last weekend.

Wins over Coatbridge, Berwickshire, Falkirk, and West Lothian were delivered in grand style and with great authority although Oliver and Co did have sweat on their brow before emerging from the melting pot to win a nail-biter against West Lothian. East Lothian hit the ground running in their early morning prelim round match against Coatbridge and stormed to a highly impressive 19-4 win over the rated trio of Martyn Jenkins, Jim Prunty, and Rab Murphy. Berwickshire provided the first round opposition to Mellor and Co but the Border trio of Leslie Mitchell, Jamie Mitchell, and Robert Paterson made their exit to a crushing 22-11 defeat from the on fire East Lothian challengers. Oliver & Co returned to the Perth carpet on Sunday morning to face Gary Crosbie, Iain Donaldson, and David Taylor of Falkirk in the second round and produced another sound performance to score a commanding 20-13 victory. The section final against fellow premier leaguers in the shape of West Lothian trio Bryan Cooper, Stuart Johnston, and Mark Allison had all the hallmarks of being a classic encounter and it did indeed turn out to be an epic battle. East Lothian were rocked back onto their heels in the early stages and it looked like curtains for them as Allison and his front-two made an explosive start that fired them into a 13-2 lead after 9 of the 18 end confrontation. Oliver and Co managed to arrest their alarming collapse on end 10 to capture possession of the jack going into the 11th and their decision to change the length encouraged a magical transformation that sparked a strong fight back to 14-14 after 15-ends. The dramatic change of momentum in favour of East Lothian fired up the strength of their challenge over the remaining three ends and although it was tightrope finish and tension filled climax it was Johnston, Mellors, and Oliver that edged a 17-16 victory. “Reaching the final stages of the championship gives East Lothian the chance to win the title for a fifth time and this particular campaign is dedicated to Willie Wood MBE who had to drop out due to a medical operation”, said his replacement Billy Mellors. West Lothian had opened their campaign with a 19-11 win over Duncan MCDougall, Mark Hogarth, and Chris McDougall of Teviotdale in the prelim round then followed on with a 20-16 triumph over Ian Inglis, Brian Rattray, and Ian Ingles Jnr of Alloa. Then an epic battle against M Renwick, S Leary, and D Anderson of Lanarkshire saw Allison and Co just edge a 15-14 thriller to reach the section final. Hopes of a strong show from Bainfield in their section at West of Scotland IBC ended in anti-climax with Graeme McIntosh, Alan brown, and Barry Hill making a 19-16 exit to Andy Sneddon, Archie Strang, and Donald Retson of Fintry in the prelim round. Balbardie IBC were also sidelined in the prelim round with their trio of Colin Fraser, Andy Forrest, and Jim Speirs bowing out to a 19-17 defeat from Les brown, Kenny Craig, and Derek Ross of Irvine. Midlothian IBC made some progress with Kevin McDougall, Johns Stevenson, and Jamie Hanlan beating Cowal 15-14 in the prelim round but losing 21-1o to Andy Greenwood, John Cowie, and Jim Byron of Cumbernauld in the first round. The semi final line up pitches East Lothian against Cumbernauld, and Elgin against Ardrossan

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